I had hunch that our sleeping patterns synced in the same way that we liked to believe our periods did. On too many mornings I would watch colleagues drearily complain about how irrationally tired they were. It was all part of an unremarkable office chat routine that I paid little attention to until I started noticing that the generic ‘God, I had such a rubbish night’s sleep’ was often echoed by a handful of other people exclaiming that they too didn’t get much shut eye.
Could it be possible that there was something more than coincidence behind our synchronised exhaustion? In true 2018 millennial fashion, my first thought was ‘Mercury in retrograde surely can’t be behind this as well?’. But maybe the moon can.
The sceptics among you will be rolling their eyes right about now, and I get it. For those who don’t entertain the influence of astrology and the planetary movements on our day to day lives, the idea of the moon being anything to do with your shit night’s sleep probably sounds as whimsical as living your life by the instructions given in a stale fortune cookie. But before you dismiss the possibility, it turns out that science doesn’t entirely reject the idea.
Back in [2013 a report was published in the Current Biology journal](http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822){href='http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(13)' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'} which suggested, after years of research, that there was a correlation between the length and quality of sleep and the lunar movements. The aim of the study was never to specifically learn about the relationship between sleep and the moon, but when the team from the University of Basel, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Switzerland Centre for Sleep Medicine returned to the data they’d gathered from the 33 volunteers, they spotted a pattern.
‘The aim of exploring the influence of different lunar phases on sleep regulation was never a priori hypothesized’, the said. In fact, rather brilliantly ‘we just thought of it after a drink in a local bar one evening at full moon’.
The participants of the study tended to take five minutes longer to fall asleep and sleep for 20 minutes less on the three or four nights either side of a full moon. In essence: ‘full moons were associated with longer times to fall asleep, reduced sleep efficiency, and less overall sleep time.’
Scientifically speaking, it’s a correlation that’s both disputed and yet to be recreated in any further research. We’re yet to understand why this apparent connection between the human body and the moon is a thing and attesting the possibility whether or not our ability to catch z’s has anything to do with that big bright circle in the night sky is something that experts are hesitant to do.
Of the science experts and academics contacted by The Debrief to discuss the lunar impact on sleep, some failed to respond and those who did respectfully declined with a note that they would ‘prefer not to be interviewed on lunar effects’. It’s an unstable ground for research, it seems. But in the area of astrology, the role the moon plays in our lives is far more certainly confirmed.
The brilliant and renowned astrologist, Shelley von Strunkel, tells me that the first thing to remember is that ‘in astrology, the moon is associated with two things, our mood and its ups and downs, and with water – it does, after all, influence the oceans’ tides’.
‘As the moon moves from the stillness of the new moon, to the slim (and beguiling) crescent Moon to the bright full moon, two weeks later, energy and emotions build – and yes, that build-up makes us restless’, she explains before reminding me that police and publications often report more drunkenness at the full moon. ‘Then post full moon, the energy settles, and so do we.'
You can see the moon's influence in practical, perhaps more tangible examples too. In an anecdote that Shelley describes as 'charming, but rather apt', she explains that in French biodynamic farming, it's common to harvest wine by the movements of the moon. 'They harvest the wine half way between the new moon and the full moon because in the new moon most of the fluid is in the soil so the grapes are claimed as dry, at the full moon the grapes are too full and watery'. So if there are full blown plant growth processes that inherently follow the lunar cycle, is it that much of a stretch to understand our bodies as doing the same thing?
It's predominantly rooted in the understanding of how the moon affects water. 'The full moon falls on the waters of the earth, and our fluids', Shelley explains. 'It’s kind of a good way of explaining it for people a little more scientifically.' So translating those movements to our ability to sleep well (or poorly, for that matter) astrologically often falls upon a similar grounding.
Generally, you’ll tend to sleep better and feel a certain stillness around a new moon. But at a full moon, the period in the lunar cycle that's associated with the most dramatic movement of water (i.e those very high or very low spring tides) the energy is heightened and thus contributes to that feeling of restlessness, a restlessness that might be behind that really rubbish night's sleep.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.